Todd, Tim and Kellan Cook love Baseball, the Seattle Mariners and trekking around the country to visit stadiums and watch games. These are their stories. #FatherSonBaseball

Better Than A Bedtime Story

Due to Mother’s Day, we will be home both days this weekend with our special little lady. No games for Todd and Tim. Our next game action will be during the week next week when the Mariners visit Baltimore. For the time being, I figured I would share a non-game story from tonight.

One of my standing tasks at our house is getting Tim ready for and tucked into bed. We’re not big pre-bed story reading people. Tonight, however, Tim asked me to read him a story. So after a vigorous teeth brushing, Tim climbed into his bed ready for a story.

But before he could pick a book, something on his night stand caught his eye…

The four most important baseballs we got last year reside on Tim’s dresser and the rest of our 2009 baseballs are on a shelf in my home office. A couple weeks ago, we had our first 11 baseballs of 2010 sitting loose on a table-top in our family room. Tim asked if we could put them in his room. While the two we got last week are on his night stand, the other 11 are now lined up across his dresser:

Our plan to read a story went out the door when Tim noticed the small “55” written inside the MLB logo on one of the baseballs on his night stand. He’d asked me to put those baseballs on his night stand and, once they were in place, he lined them up so they face his pillow.

Tonight, he asked me about the “55” and the other numbers written on some of the other balls on his dresser. What followed was a 20 minute walk down memory lane as we took several of the balls out of their cases to inspect them, played bare-handed catch from two feet apart, and discussed the games where we got the baseballs and the players who gave and/or autographed them for us.

We talked about the differences in the colors of the baseballs and how some baseballs — like our autographed Felix Hernandez baseball — look “dirty” because the players like it how it feels better in their hand that way.

We talked about our Willie Bloomquist baseball and how we got it the same night that Tim got his 30 Teams Trophy (also shown above on the night stand). Tim remembered that it was a rainy night at the ballpark that night. But he didn’t remember that was the same game at which he met Alex for the first time. Since meeting Alex in Chicago, Tim and I have run into Alex (and Joe, who Tim thinks are brothers) at Citi Field twice, including at the game in which we got the baseball to the far right on his dresser.

We talked about the umpires who have given us baseballs after games and, notably, how Tim had dropped the baseball that Bruce Dreckman gave him recently at Citi Field, and how another umpire picked it up and gave it back to Tim.

As we chatted, we tossed the various baseballs back-and-forth to each other. So many moments in life are forgotten forever. And that’s one of the reasons I love getting a baseball at a game. It gives us something tangible to hold onto and help tie us back into the memories of our days at the ballpark. Tonight, it was a great way to get ready for bed. It definitely beat reading one of Tim’s books for the 700th time.

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4 Comments

Great entry Todd! I love hearing about your father/son experiences. I think I like hearing about those over game entries. You’ll sure remember them a lot longer right? Well, I went to he game last nite & got an autograph that I’ve been trying to get for a year and a half. I don’t wanna give anything away because I’m going to do an entry on it. I’ll let you know when it’s up. Great job again, & I hope to hear about more.
Brian

Todd just go on Pirates.com theres directions on how to get the deal. 7 bucks for all upper level tickets. but it comes to about ten dollars after the online services charges. glad i caught you tonight because you may want to get on it as they may sell fast. ill be there friday and maybe one other day. really hope to run into you guys! if you have any other questions let me know. i know your a vet of the area but if you want anything to do let me know. maybe you can come to morgantown for the night!http://pittpeas.mlblogs.com

MATT-
Sweet! I just bought tix for Saturday and Sunday. $7 infield field level tickets are a good thing! I’ll keep an eye out for you. Morgantown would be excellent; however, Tim will be fast asleep after the game and I’ll be on dad-duty.

BRIAN-
I think I responded to your comments via email. But for good measure: Thanks. The father-son experiences are excellent. Glad you like reading about ‘em, b/c they are the reason I’m here on MLBlogs. As for the Griff article, its seemed to blow over now. So, now he needs to get hot and everyone can forget about him potentially retiring until the end of the season.

Meta

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